Welcome back to Austen Promises and the Writer’s Journal!
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Back in December, I wrote a post in which I shared my writing goals. At the time, I hesitated to share, in part because of potential criticism and in part because I know how I am with goals. The criticism part never materialized, except for one bordering-on-nasty comment two months ago when I was having a particularly low day and shared with someone that I should not have shared with. I really am far too trusting.
My first goal was to advertise more. I had some Amazon ads running, and was working on some Kobo promos. The Amazon ads had to be suspended for now, in large part because I’m not sure I understand what I’m doing. It got to feeling like a crap shoot, and I don’t gamble. I have had one Kobo promo completed and am near the end of another at the time of this writing. I have learned that it’s hard to get a spot in a Kobo promo. They seem to be popular. The Kobo things have both netted me sales, but more, they have gotten me exposure. I got a sale just last week on the first book I did a promo on. People are seeing my name and my books and are coming back and buying even after the promo period is over. This is important for growing my business on those sites.
I mentioned iTunes in my previous post, but near as I can tell, they don’t do promos or anything.
My second goal was to get my website up and running. In December, when I laid forth my goals, it was still just a blog, though I had paid to have it upgraded. It’s now running exactly where I want it. There are some categories that need to be tweaked, but my books page was created this weekend and is now live, and that was the last big piece. I’m pretty proud of this site. It’s beautiful and, I was told, looks professional. I did it all myself, and I take a lot of satisfaction in it. In fact, I often just pop over here to look at it and admire it. <3
My third goal was to increase traffic to my Gumroad store. I have managed that very well in the last few weeks. And, just as I had hoped, sales came along with it. I still don’t get a huge amount of sales over there, but just the other day, I had three, out of the blue. I also know of at least one reader who has an account at Gumroad, so she can buy my books there. I’m not going to say I have met this third goal, despite the progress I have made, because it could be much better. I have slacked off the promo recently. I need to get back on the stick with it!
My main goal was to “write a lot of books.” I wanted to write one per month. Due to carryover from previous issues, I have not been able to do that every month. I got Darcy’s Bodie Mine out in January, and it did about as well as Darcy’s Race to Love did last year. I did a couple projects under different pen names in late January and into February, and then published Darcy’s Surprise Betrothal on March 28th. So, Zoe Burton has had two releases in four months. Not great, but not terrible, either. The good news is, I am back into a good writing habit again, and am writing between 1,500 and 2,500 words most days. I adjusted my goal to a novel in six weeks, and hope to publish four more in 2018. I’ve given myself Sundays off; and, any day that requires being out of the house—for an RWA meeting or allergy shots or whatever—only needs to count for half. I also gave myself a cushion of two weeks, which means that I have two extra weeks in which to get it done, if I need them. So far, I’m making good progress on my WIP (which posts in excerpts here on the blog on Thursdays and in whole chapters on my Patreon feed on Mondays.) I guess I’m making decent progress on this goal. There is still the hope that I get to where I can write 50,000 words in a month, consistently 🙂
Moving forward, I intend to continue working on my advertising, Gumroad, and writing goals. I’ll update again in a few months. 🙂
Did you write out some goals for this year? How are you coming with them?
Come back next Wednesday for another peek into my journal! <3
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